A recent journalism graduate from Bournemouth University has been named as an industry body’s Alumni of the Month.

Rachel Bartlett completed the BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism degree at BU in 2010, and is now editor of journalism.co.uk, a popular site for journalism news, innovation and resources.

She was chosen as the National Council for the Training of Journalists’ (NCTJ) Alumna of the Month for March and was profiled on the industry body’s website, talking about the course and her career.

Rachel told the site that she chose to study Multimedia Journalism at BU as she wanted to gain a broad range of skills, as well as the opportunity to take the NCTJ preliminary journalism exams.

“My decision was driven by the fact that I was keen to ensure I entered the industry with a range of skills across media platforms, including newspapers, magazines, television, radio and online, and the ability to study for, and take, her NCTJ exams at the same time,” she said.

“I went to university fairly open-minded about what area of the industry I wanted to go into, and the variety of the course helped guide me in terms of which areas I was most interested in.”

She added that gaining industry experience while studying was vital, as was learning shorthand – despite the wealth of digital technology available.

“While passing the NCTJ arguably helps to demonstrate that you can reach certain standards in your reporting, I would also stress the huge importance of also gaining real industry experience, being able to demonstrate a proactive attitude in finding original, relevant stories, and show some digital prowess and awareness of the different ways people are finding and consuming journalism today.”

Read Rachel’s interview in full on the NCTJ website